Short-Term Events, Long-Term Friends? Freshman Orientation Peers and Academic Performance

Many organizations use onboarding programs to assist newcomers with the transition process. Are brief social interactions during such programs sufficient to create lasting performance spillovers? Exploiting quasi-random assignment to groups of a two-day freshman orientation program for university students, I find that higher ability peers generate positive effects even three years later. A one SD increase in peer ability improves the academic performance of business administration students by 0.05 to 0.08 SD. I provide evidence that the effects result from the formation of lasting social ties, and that performance spillovers are moderated by the broader social environment of the organization.